Monthly Archives: Apr 2010

When I started cloth diapering, using disposable wipes got real old, real fast. I kept wanting to ball the wipe up inside the diaper like I did with sposies. It was a pain to remember to pick them out and throw them away!

When I ran out of the disposable wipes I had, I cut up some burp cloths that were laying around. I didn’t like them as burp cloths because they were very thin and washcloth-like. I doubled them over and zigzagged them. Not easy since they were super stretchy!

Not only are they not pretty (LOL) but they’re actually kind of scratchy compared to materials used in cloth wipes. I also don’t always have enough since I don’t have to wash every day anymore. I was finding myself using several for a diaper change and having to scrub a little bit, which isn’t fun for my little guy.

I really wanted cloth wipes, but I was kind of scared to buy some and not like them. I wanted to find a brand I liked, and buy a nice pretty stack of them, rather than have a mismatched collection!

I’ve heard Thirsties talked about in my cloth diaper groups. Both the Duo Diapers and the Duo Wraps came up an awful lot when I was asking other cloth diapering mamas about night time diapering. I haven’t tried either of those yet, but Thirsties agreed to send me a 6-pack of their fab wipes and a 4 oz. (travel size) bottle of their booty luster wipe spray. There’s a giveaway too, so keep reading!

“Thirsties® is a small (but growing!) cloth diaper company committed to greener parenting and Eco Friendly solutions, not to mention 100% USA Made quality! Erin, the owner of Thirsties, started this business with an old sewing machine and $100 5 years ago. Through her hard work and diligence, her company is now one of the leaders in the cloth diaper industry. Our diapers are now made by work at home mothers, and very close to our Canon City warehouse, reducing our carbon output. Erin and I are experienced cloth diapering moms, and offer our knowledge to our retailers and customers alike.”

The wipes! Oh my goodness, if you could feel these things. Buttery soft is an understatement. I feel bad for wiping my son’s tush with those rough burp cloths. 🙁

The wipes are cotton velour on one side and microfleece on the other. Both sides are super soft and the white side is nice to be sure you got the tushie clean. They’re 8 x 8 (after washing and drying) and will fit in a wipes warmer or empty wipes container. The washing instructions say to dry on low, but I dried them on high with my diaper inserts and had no trouble.

It’s been a while since I bought disposable wipes, but my rule of thumb was that I wouldn’t buy them for more than 2.5 cents per wipe, and under two cents per wipe, I would stock up. That was the “sensitive” brand. (Add a scoffing “ha!” to that please.)

I seemed to use a zillion wipes, but let’s just say 15 per day for simplicity here. That’s a cost of about $9 for a month. If you’re buying smaller refill packs or tubs, not shopping sales and clipping coupons, your cost per wipe will be a lot higher. For me, a 6 pack of thirsties wipes ($10.75 MSRP) would pay for itself in just over a month. So even if I had bought three dozen wipes, they would have paid for themselves by now.

I’ll just skip right over the issue of ingredients in disposable wipes and impact on the environment and add that based on the reviews I’ve read, people continue to use these wipes long after their kids are out of diapers. Wiping faces, cleaning the house. Let’s see you do that with a “used” disposable wipe!

The compulsive side of me feels the need to point out how nice and pretty they look stacked up all nice and neatly.

I had to run a quick load of diapers to avoid using those nasty burp cloth wipes on him! I want to buy 3 more packs of these. I think that would give me enough to have some upstairs and downstairs, not have to wash every day, and be able to ditch the burp cloth wipes!

The Booty Luster ended up being a whole lot nicer than I expected. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a pre-mixed, overpriced version of every other wipes solution. Sorry, I was wrong!

The “other organic ingredients” is a little bothersome to me. Edit: Those “other organic ingredients” are just purified water, so no worries! Anyone who has experience with food allergies will tell you how irritating listed ingredients like “natural flavoring” can be! My son doesn’t have any topical allergies that we know of, so I didn’t pursue this. I do like that it uses Grapefruit Seed Extract as the anti-fungal ingredient, rather than Tea Tree Oil.

I’m used to squirting away and wiping, squirting some more, wiping etc. I had a hard time getting used to needing only 2 squirts of the booty luster. My son’s tush wiped clean easily, felt smooth and clean, no residue at all. The spray came out with just the right mist, though we did have a few drips. The scent was very light, but pleasant. Like a very light, summery citrus.

The MSRP of the 4 oz travel size bottle is $6.25, and the 8 oz bottle, $11.00. That’s a little spendy for cough*cheap*cough, ahem, frugal me. However, using the math I did earlier, this would most likely still be cheaper than disposable wipes and very convenient to boot. I’m not sure how long a bottle will last, I’ll have to update on that. If I can get used to only needing two squirts, it will probably last a long time!

If you want to drool over all Thirsties has to offer (and maybe leave a not so subtle hint with some dog-eared pages), you can request a catalog on their website. Just go to www.thirstiesbaby.com/catalog.htm.

6. Tweet about this giveaway. Please include @chgdiapers and link to this giveaway. You may use this example if you like. “@chgdiapers is giving away Thirsties wipes and Booty Luster until 5/14 http://bit.ly/dsSyLJ #clothdiapers #giveaway” Limit one tweet per day, please comment with the permalink to your tweet for your entry.

7. Blog about this giveaway and link back to it. Leave a comment with a link to your blog post for your entry.

Then do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around while patting your head and rubbing your tummy and…ok that one was just for fun!

I will accept entries until Friday, May 14th at 9 P.M. I will use random.org’s true random number generator to select a winner. I’ll notify the winner by email and s/he will have 48 hours to claim the prize!

Long ago and far away, Etsy and I weren’t acquainted. *gasp* I know. Therefore, when I was looking for a reusable pad for my Clorox Ready mop, I had nowhere to look really, but Ebay.

This is what I got:

It did the job I suppose, but the overhanging material constantly got flipped under and gummed up the works, then the fleece flaps would slip out and the whole pad would fall off. Plus, it was made out of a prefold, so it often ended up just absorbing most of my liquid instead of actually mopping the floor!

QwertyO generously offered to send me a pad for my ready mop. She is also sponsoring a giveaway, so read on my fellow moppers!

Susan also sent a Swiffer wet jet pad to share with a friend. I intended to test, photograph and review it as well, but I’m still hunting for someone local who still has one. Many people I know got rid of theirs because of the chemicals, but she included instructions for opening your wet jet solution bottle and making your own, earth friendly solutions!

The package really was a present!

Instructions for homemade solution were right on the package.

The Swiffer pad packaging includes a link to instructions for opening the bottle of solution to fill it with your own. It’s all terry and has the same velcro attachments as the disposable pads.

The ready mop pad is microfiber on one side and terry on the other.

The wide border of terry allowed me to really secure the pad onto the mop. I was able to mop without having to stop and stuff it back in at all!

I love my QwertyO reusable pad. It’s so nice to be able to grab my ready mop for quick cleanups, without dragging out the mop and bucket. Now I can do it more efficiently and in half the time since I don’t have to wrestle with my old pad! Doesn’t my floor look great?

3. “Like” me on Facebook. Current fans count. Comment saying you’re a fan to get your entry. 4. Follow me on Twitter. Current followers count. Comment saying you’re a follower to get your entry. 5. Tweet about this giveaway. One tweet/entry per day. Comment with a link to your tweet to get your entry. (Please be sure to include @chgdiapers and a link to this post) You may use this if you like: Reduce your footprint. @chgdiapers has a #giveaway for reusable mop pads or produce bags made by QwertyO. Ends 5/11 http://bit.ly/6. Write a blog post about this giveaway and link to it. Post a comment with a link to your post for your entry. 7. Add QwertyO as a favorite shop on Etsy. Comment that you added her as a favorite to get your entry.

I will accept entries until Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 at 9:00 P.M. Please note that all of my giveaways are available to residents of the U.S. only unless otherwise specified.

I’ll use random.org’s true random number generator to select a winner, then notify the winner via email.

Please be sure to leave your email address in your comment if it isn’t in your profile. If I can’t find contact info for the winner, I will choose someone else.

Thank you to QwertyO for providing the two pads for review and the products for the giveaway winner as well!

My friend Tonya is switching her household to all “green,” one week at a time. She’s writing in on Cafemom’sThe Stir. Here is the post that prompted the one I’m writing right now! At the bottom of the post you can read the posts from prior weeks as well.

Anyhoo, when she bought her Naturolisoap nuts, she noticed that they were cloth diaper safe and offered to send me some. I’ve been using them on my cloth diapers for over three weeks now and I am so grateful to her for sending them to me!

Laundry use is easy. Put 1/2 ounce (about 5-6 pieces) in the muslin bag. you can use this “batch” for about 5 loads. If you grab it out of the washer before the rinse cycle, you can extend the life a bit. It doesn’t hurt them to be thrown in the dryer (which I have done!)

Close the bag.

Then toss it in with your laundry.

The laundry directions tell you how to make a liquid, and how to wash in cold water. They include a handy pamphlet as well.

They didn’t suds much, but they worked!

The soap nuts smelled vinegar-y to me, and somewhat like a pungent berry. Their surface felt a bit slippery. If I agitated them in the sink they would make some suds.

Mine never did turn gray (the directions say they will be gray & mushy when they are ready to be pitched), but when they were “used up” I noticed that they no longer smelled, weren’t slippery and looked mushy.

I used the soap nuts on all of my laundry for three weeks, and I was amazed. My laundry came out smelling like nothing. Just clean. Even my stinky kitchen dish cloths, which is amazing.

Before I used the last few, I wanted to order some for myself! Here are the costs I figured (based on my shipping zip code).

They also have value bags of broken pieces for as little as 4.5 cents per load. The more you buy, the more cost effective it is. It would be a great idea to go in on an order with a friend (or friends) and split it. Honestly, I don’t care how much they cost. They work, and it will still be cheaper than disposable diapering!

I’m a bargain hunter, so the detergent we use for our clothing costs 0-2 cents or so per load. I really couldn’t justify the expense right now, so I settled on the 32 ounce bag for the diapers only. I tried to balance value per load with the total cost. Plus I always seem to get stuck with stuff that stops working for me as soon as I stock up!

If you want to make sure the soap nuts go as far as they should, (and you have a kitchen scale) you might want to weigh them as you use them, to be sure you’re not using too many.

I ordered the 32 oz bag. With the weight of the bag itself, it was just over 2 lbs.

Here, four weighed 1/2 ounce.

Here, it took six.

It doesn’t really matter, but just know that you could potentially be using 50% more than you need if you just grab 6 every time. We have an HE washer and soft water, so I may just use 4 every time.

My order came with 2 muslin bags.

Here you can see just how huge the bag is! Yes I know, paper towels, ick. We rarely use them and I want unpapertowels!

If you’ve tried other detergents and they haven’t worked, or if you’re just looking for something new and truly all natural, give soap nuts a try!

Edit August 2010: I have the worst luck with “soap.” These stopped working for me for some unknown reason. My diapers started coming out smelling like they weren’t washed, and the soap nuts were getting broken in the machine. The pieces were working their way out of the bag even though I cinched it tightly, and would get stuck on diapers/inserts, and left a couple of spots on them as well.

Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 11, 7 and 4 year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. Read More »